Rusty Old Geezer by Lotte Kristensen

Hey everyone!

Do you ever wonder who those people were, the ones that have ended up adorning our art journal pages, cards and collages?  It always makes me a little sad to contemplate them - it must be the end of the line for that particular family, for their photos to be found in antique shops, but no-one to tell their stories anymore.  So we should invent new stories for them - and this Rusty Old Geezer just caught my attention, I thought he looked like he would know all about cogs and gears and mechanical stuff, so that's what he's ended up doing here: Meet Archie Starkadder - fringe inventor and partial to the odd pint of pale ale.

Materials Used:

That's Crafty! Surfaces MDF ATC Chunkies
That's Crafty! White Gesso
That's Crafty! Texture Paste
That's Crafty! Texture Sand Paste
Ranger Archival Ink Pad: Sky Blue
Ranger Archival Ink Pad: Cornflower Blue
Ranger Archival Ink Pad: Orange Blossom
Ranger Archival Ink Pad: Sepia
PaperArtsy ESA10 - Seth Apter stamp set
Stencil Girl S304 'Discovery' stencil
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Dolls: Ancestors
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic Paint: Burnt Sienna
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic Paint: Carbon Black
DecoArt Mdia Fluid Acrylic Paint: Cobalt Teal Hue
Metal embellishments of your choice - I used some gears and cogs and an old radiator key

Gotta say, I'm totally in love with these ATC chunkies - and think this project would make a nice alternative to a birthday card, it would be quite simple to personalise it with somebody's name, maybe hidden at the back. Next time I do one of these with some cogs and gears, I'm going to wait and glue the chunkie together until the end, so that the gears can be attached with a split pin through a wee hole and thus be movable - the perfect stress reliever to fiddle with at your desk!  But let's get started:

Once glued together, paint Chunkie with two thin coats of white gesso. When dry, run the Sky Blue ink pad over the surfaces, blend with tool of your choice and leave to dry thoroughly - you can use a heat gun, but watch those fingers ;)

From the Seth Apter stamp set, use the text stamp and stamp all over the Chunkie in Orange Blossom - obviously the stamp is smaller than the Chunkie, so stamp it partly, then turn a quarter around and stamp again on the next blank space. Continue until all surfaces are stamped, then dry thoroughly.

Next, use the tag stamp inked up in Cornflower Blue, stamp front and back, and partly on the other three sides. Dry, then use the round 'Gallons' stamp inked up in Sepia and stamp on the front - partly on the top, left hand side and bottom - don't try and fit in the whole stamp!  If there are any little spaces you think look a bit bare, dab up some bubble wrap with Sepia ink and lightly touch down.  Dry thoroughly between each stamp. Stamp the Gallons stamp partly on the sides in Sepia ink as well.  If you're a bit unsure about stamping patterns like these, practice on a piece of paper first - it's one of my favourite things to do with stamps, to make your own background papers like this, mixing colours that complement or contrast.

Next, use the Orange Blossom ink pad on the text stamp, and stamp onto the body of the paper doll - this will take a wee while to dry.  I'm sorry that I forgot to take a photie of Archie by himself in his enhanced suit, but you get the idea from the picture below:

Now for the radiator key - this is one of the easiest ways to produce a fake rust effect: using your fingertips, simply rub a bit of sand paste in irregular patches over the radiator key, and when dry, dab on some blotches of Carbon Black.  Once that's dry, dab Burnt Sienna all over, leaving some black colour peeping through. When dry, lightly touch the edges with some Cobalt paint - yeah, I know that rust doesn't usually go turquoise, but it's so puuuuurty!!

Once I'd decided which embellishments to use, I positioned them and then added the paper doll, but only gluing everything down once I was happy with the positions. I finished off by adding little accents of texture paste through the stencil and then, because I really like black and white check, used fine-tip Posca pens to make this pattern on the tab edges of the Chunkie.

Lastly, I glued on the grunged up radiator key - and Archie Starkadder is ready to go out into the world!

Well, that's if for this week - I hope you all have a lovely and relaxing weekend, and maybe even get to do some crafting!

Lotte x

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